IN THE PROVINCIAL COURT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

[1]           Mr. Kafka is charged with crossing a solid double line on West Saanich Road in North Saanich on April 13, 2016, contrary to section 155(1)(a) of the Motor Vehicle Act.

[2]           Section 155(1)(a) of the Act provides:

[3]           On April 13, 2016, at approximately 11:30 in the morning, Robert Pitman-Jelly was driving a tractor under lease to Van-Kam pulling a trailer unit of Saltspring & Pender Island Freight Service. 

[4]           He was southbound on West Saanich Road and about to turn left into the driveway of the Marine Technology Centre.

[5]           Mr. Pitman-Jelly is hearing impaired and gave his evidence through an American sign language interpreter certified by the Association of Visual Language Interpreters of Canada.

[6]           He says he was driving southbound on West Saanich Road and was about to make a delivery to the Marine Technology Centre.  Mr. Pitman-Jelly says he pulled to the right side of the roadway in order to make a wide left turn into the Centre.  He noticed an ACE Courier Services van about to exit the entrance way.  He made eye contact with the driver of the van who signalled to him to enter before the van exited.

[7]           Mr. Pitman-Jelly saw a long line of cars backed up behind him.  There was another on-coming vehicle approaching at some distance and he concluded he had time to make the turn without posing a risk to that on-coming vehicle.

[8]           He initiated his left turn signal and started to make his turn.  As he began, a passing vehicle struck the front left corner of the tractor unit.

[9]           That vehicle was a pickup with a load of earth in its box which swerved first to the left and then back across the road to the right side of the roadway.

[10]        The pictures taken by the attending officer and entered as exhibits show that this portion of West Saanich Road is a paved, two-lane roadway, with a marked paved bicycle lane in each direction on the outer portions of the roadway.  The bicycle lane appears to be about one meter wide.

[11]        From the scene of the collision, West Saanich Road is straight for at approximately 500 metres north of the driveway and 300 metres south of the driveway, providing a clear view for a significant distance.

[12]        The outer edge of the bikes lanes are marked with a solid white line and immediately beyond the line is a grassy shallow ditch.  There is no shoulder.

[13]        The roadway is lined with trees and shrubs to the south and on the east side to the north of the driveway but the wide grassy ditch separates them from the roadway.

[14]        To complete the geography of the area, directly opposite the entrance to the Marine Technology Centre is the entrance to the Institute of Ocean Sciences.  In a photo in evidence can be seen a wood utility pole on the north side of the entrance to the Institute approximately one metre from the edge of the paved bicycle lane and from the edge of the paved entrance way.

[15]        The length of that roadway just described is divided by a solid, double yellow line, broken for approximately 10 metres where the two entrances enter the roadway.

[16]        Mr. Michael Dyer gave evidence.  He was walking from the Centre to his parked car across the road at the Institute.  His recollection is seeing a white pickup truck, going at a significant speed, hitting the front end of the transport truck.  His view was partially blocked by the ACE courier Services van.  He was sure the tractor unit had its left signal on.

[17]        The last witness for the Crown was Nathanial Cook.  He was in the on-coming vehicle approaching from the south.  His observation is that he saw the tractor trailer unit make a left turn, with a wide right.  Just as the front of the tractor was about at the centre line, a white pickup was passing the tractor trailer from behind and the two collided, with the tractor hitting the pickup on the right side of the box. 

[18]        He said he was not too far away when this occurred.  He said his vehicle had to brake quite hard when the vehicles collided.

[19]        He left Mr. Pitman-Jelly his phone number and carried on to his job site.

[20]        Unfortunately, the one witness who likely had the clearest view of the entire incident, the driver of the ACE Courier Services van was not called, due, apparently, to his unavailability.

[21]        Mr Kafka gave evidence.  He says that as he approached the Centre, he noticed a large truck stopped in the bicycle lane.  He waited 30 seconds behind it and then slowly started to pass it.  He is sure it did not have a left turn signal showing.  Then the tractor trailer started to make a left turn in front of him, striking the right side of his pickup.

[22]        This is the conclusion I draw from the evidence, with significant aid from the photos put into evidence.

[23]        Mr. Pitman-Jelly slowed down and pulled to the right side of the pavement, intending to make a left turn into the Centre.  An ACE Courier Services van was exiting and Mr. Pitman-Jelly stopped momentarily to determine whether the van would exit before he turned in.  When the van driver indicated the tractor trailer should proceed in, and the roadway was clear of oncoming traffic, Mr. Pitman-Jelly started to make the turn and somewhere near the centre lines, the front end of his tractor unit came into contact with the box of the passing pickup driven by Mr. Kafka.

[24]        Mr. Kafka was immediately behind the tractor trailer and when it pulled to the side of the roadway and stopped, he concluded that it was parking there and pulled out and passed it.  I conclude from the damage done to Mr. Kafka’s vehicle and the distance it was pushed on impact that Mr. Kafka’s vehicle was going faster than a slow pull around.  I also conclude that Mr. Kafka’s vehicle had fully crossed the solid double line in making the pass.

[25]        Contrary to Mr. Kafka’s evidence, I conclude that the tractor trailer occupied a good portion of the roadway.  The contiguous bicycle lane is only a metre wide and there is very little of the grass verge before the shallow ditch on which the tractor trailer could have moved onto.  In addition, the photo of the tractor trailer at rest where it stopped on impact satisfies me that it had started from a position not far to the right of the travelled portion of the roadway.

[26]        But, much of this conclusion is not of great significance.  What is of significance is my conclusion that Mr. Kafka’s vehicle crossed the solid double line in order to pass the tractor trailer.

[27]        Section 155(1)(a) of the Motor Vehicle Act requires a vehicle to drive to the right of a solid double line only. 

[28]        There are no exceptions such as are available to vehicles crossing a single solid line or the broken line side of a double line.

[29]        I, therefore, find Mr. Kafka guilty of crossing a solid double line.  The fine imposed is $109.